MANHATTAN — Without point guard Angel Rodriguez and senior Martavious Irving for the second straight game, Kansas State came up with a balanced offensive attack to take down South Dakota 70-50 on Monday.

Nino Williams led the Wildcats with a career-high 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting, while Rodney McGruder added 15 points and pulled down nine rebounds.

“The middle of the zone was open so coach (Bruce Weber) told us if we cut we’d be open, and I was making good cuts and I got a couple of easy offensive rebounds,” Williams said. “That’s how I pretty much got all of my scoring.”

Southwell, who also dished out a career-high six assists, said he wanted to be more aggressive on offense after passing up a few open looks that turned into turnovers early in the game.

“Probably two or three of my turnovers were like that,” Southwell said. “I just wanted to be a little more aggressive because I was pretty mad at myself at that point.”

Weber said the Wildcats’ consistency still isn’t where he would like, but he hopes the return of Rodriguez and Irving will boost the offense to that level.

“There’s no way you should have 17 turnovers,” Weber said. “I think that’s another indication of not having the focus you need.

“Now you move on. Hopefully we get Angel and (Irving) back in practice by Wednesday. I don’t know if they’ll be 100 percent by next Saturday, but just having them for a little bit I think will ease the pressure on Will and everybody.”

K-State (11-2) hosts Oklahoma State for a 12:30 p.m. tipoff Saturday in its Big 12 opener.

The Wildcats got off to a hot start offensively, hitting 4 of 5 from the field to go up 10-2 four minutes into the game.

The Coyotes started just the opposite on offense, missing their first five floor shots before making their first field goal at the 14:44 mark.

After Brandon Bos hit back-to-back shots for the Coyotes to pull his team within seven points, South Dakota’s offense went dormant again.

The Coyotes, who shot 20 percent from the field in the first half and recorded only one assist, went more than six minutes without a field goal to fall behind by 16 points. Juevol Myles’ 3-point play just before halftime made it 30-18.

Myles, who played for K-State during the 2010-2011 season, finished with 13 points. Karim Rowson led South Dakota with 14 points.

“I thought Juevol played pretty well, not only on the offensive end because he had five steals as well,” South Dakota coach Dave Boots said. “I am sure it was fun for him to compete against those guys and I thought he had a pretty good game for us.”

K-State used a balance scoring attack as eight different Wildcats scored in the first half with McGruder leading the way with eight points.

The Coyotes shook off the offensive struggles from the first half by hitting 5 of 6 shots to start the second half to pull within six points.

K-State kept South Dakota from getting any closer than five points and used a 12-0 run to pull away.

“They just turned it up defensively,” Boots said. “We tried to get inside, but we did not have much there. We tried to get to the basket, but they blocked a couple of shots.”

Southwell led the charge offensively during that stretch, scoring seven consecutive points during the run.

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